9/7/25 Matt. 18:15-20 “The Right Chemistry”

02 Sep 9/7/25 Matt. 18:15-20 “The Right Chemistry”

9/7/25    Matt. 18:15-20        “The Right Chemistry”

I have an urgent news cast for all who are here today.  Summer is over!  It is officially time or past time to begin your fall regimen, whatever that may be.  I hope you all had a good summer and that autumn will be the same.  I know that it was a memorable summer for me we went to visit our grandchildren and children in Florida.  I got to preach in some wonderful churches and get reacquainted with some old friends.  One thing that I kind of miss is that I don’t get to go fishing anymore.  But now the time has come to start our fall programs in our churches.  As I have been retired for some time now, this really is not as big a deal as it was when I was in charge of a church.  But I always realize that it was not me that made things work.  It was God working through you people in various places that made the whole thing work.  Sitting on the sideline and criticizing others will not do anyone any good.  And really, that is what Jesus is talking about in today’s reading.  I have been in the unenviable position to see church conflict up close.  Sometimes we handle it right and sometimes we don’t.  Let’s get a little reminder from Jesus as to how to handle this.

Here’s a little story from Jim Luthy that shows what can happen.  A few years ago, there was a team in the NBA that had bought their way to a sure championship.  At least that is what they thought.  They started the season with 6 former all-stars on the roster.  They also had what might have been the greatest Soviet player of all time.  As the season progressed, they added 2 more all-stars.  Of course they also had the highest payroll in NBA history.  It all seemed to pay off as by the beginning of March, they had the best record in the league.  By the end of March they had fallen to 5^th place in their conference.  By mid-April their downward spiral continued as their most talented player was suspended for hitting a teammate with a towel.  They ended up in 7^th place in their conference and just barely making the playoffs.  8 weeks earlier they had been on top of the heap with the same team and players.  They went into the playoffs and lost 3 straight and went home for the year.  One may ask, what happened to this dream team?  Sportscasters kept saying that they didn’t have the chemistry for winning it all.  This is something that is rather obvious in this case but it might not be as obvious in our churches.  When we detect bad chemistry in our churches we need to do something and not stand by and watch.

Before we begin talking about this topic, let’s make sure of who we are talking about.  Jesus is addressing believers here.  He tells His disciples that if a brother, or believer sins against you.  He isn’t talking about the Samaritans.  He isn’t talking about the Romans.  He isn’t even talking about the Jews.  He is talking about Christian believers and His followers.

Just about every day you can turn to our anti-Christian newspapers or whatever and read letters to the editor from people who would like nothing better than there be no Christians at all.  I know that for some of you, your blood boils when you read such foolishness.  I know that I have responded from time to time, and it may be time to respond again.

But we have to remember that Jesus tells us in Mark, Luke and other places that the unbeliever will not understand His words.  They will not understand the Bible until the Holy Spirit comes upon them.  At that time they would cease to write this type of trash because they would suddenly understand.  What I’m trying to say is that most of our critics don’t have a clue as to what they are talking about because it is impossible for them to understand the Bible.  So when they quote Scripture, they are misquoting it because they don’t have a clue as to what the Bible says.  So there is no real reason to be upset with them.  We can only pray for them.  And speaking of prayer, they now seem to think that prayer is of no use.  Hopefully, we all know that is not the case.  They just do not understand.

This passage is talking about believers only.  Non-believers will sin against us all the time and we cannot hold them to our standards.  They don’t believe in God so how can we expect them to behave like they do believe.  This is the other side of the coin.  Most of the world cannot be held accountable for Biblical standards because most people don’t know God and can’t understand the Bible.  Their only way out is to come to know Jesus Christ.

So now that we understand that this reading is for us and not the world we can begin.  First of all, Jesus tells us that if a brother or sister sins against you, go and show him or her their fault.  It’s just one on one.  This first statement should really reduce a lot of conflict because often times we don’t react because of sin.  Rather we react because of hurt feelings or something else where we are actually the sinners and not the people whom we are talking against.

Here is what I mean.  We have become a society that is really broken and I mean really broken.  Everything you see and hear is all about ‘me.’  Me, me, me, me!  Everything is a way to make me better, make me richer, make me happier and so on.  You know what I mean.  We also seem to think that many sins are ok.  There are ways in which it is ok to steal.  It is ok to lie.  Many things are now ok that the Bible explicitly warns against.  Often times we get upset with fellow believers because they don’t agree with us on many of these topics.  We go after people because we don’t agree with them.  They may not be the sinners if they are following what the Bible says and you are not.  There are many cases like this even in our own churches.  We get upset with people even when they aren’t sinning.  Many times this happens when we don’t care enough about someone or we just flat out disagree with them.

This isn’t a remedy for a personality conflict although I think the first step might work rather well.  This isn’t the way to settle the political hatred that seems to permeate our society.  This is the way to resolve conflict in our churches when we have someone who sins like a habitual liar, an adulterer, or one who does not care what happens to the body of Christ.

Now we have been through this before so you should know what we are talking about.  The first step is, as I said, that you go to the believer who is committing these sins and confront them with their behavior.  Always keep in mind that we are doing this to better God’s church.  Therefore, never let this conversation go to a personal level of wrong doing on the others part.  Whenever we are trying to resolve this type of conflict, the main purpose is to keep the door open so that the sinner can repent and come back.

If this doesn’t work, then we are supposed to get someone else from the church to go with us as we talk to them again.  In this way you are telling this person that there are others that see this sin also and it must stop.  This isn’t a case of me against him, others see this also.  Once again this is done with love and care so that the person can return.  The lay leader or president of the church might be one person to help you with this.

Then, of course, if all else fails you bring the sin before the church.  This doesn’t mean that you give it to the pastor so he can announce it to everyone.  It means that you bring it to someone like the staff-parish or call committee.  They are a confidential group that can confront the person again.  Always, always do this in the love of Jesus Christ so that the person can return to fellowship with you.  All of these steps are to try to get the person back in with God.  Often times we get misled into thinking that we cannot fall out of grace with God but we can.  I have seen conflict in churches and this is a good way to help to resolve it.

Now you may be saying, ‘what if this still doesn’t work?’  Jesus tells them that if this still doesn’t work, then treat them like a pagan or tax collector.  In our all-inclusive world, we don’t necessarily understand this part.  How ironic!  Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about how much the Jews and the Gentiles hated each other.  They absolutely didn’t like each other.  The Jews wouldn’t associate in any way, shape or form with the Gentiles unless they absolutely had to.  They pretty much gave them the silent treatment all the time.  They were banished from Jewish society.  This meant they couldn’t live in the same area or do any kind of trade with the Jews.  The tax collectors were even treated worse.  And I don’t think tax collectors have changed much if you look at the IRS.

In other words, if you continued in your sinful ways, you were ex-communicated from their society.  Your job would be gone.  Your friends would be gone.  Everything would be gone.  This was extreme.  This isn’t like today where we don’t have a society anymore to ex-communicate someone from.  All we can do is suggest that they don’t be a part of our church anymore and I really have never seen it go that far.  Anyway, this is one good formula for solving bad situations.  I know it is good because it is Jesus talking.  When Jesus talks we should all listen.

All this stuff so far is good and important and it all ties into the next statement when Jesus says ‘whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’  Many times people misunderstand what Jesus means here.  Jesus is talking about the church.  This whole section is about the church.  The ‘you’ here is the church.  This is Jesus telling us that the church has the full authority from God to do these things.  We bind people to heaven by their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  On the other side, if we have to cut someone loose, then the church has this authority.

But we have to be careful with this because this means the real church.  It is the church that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.  It believes that the Bible is our book of truth and not just this part or that part or the parts where we agree.  We are to constantly guard against making something else out to be our god, like a sport or work or a hobby.  Jesus Christ is God and He has given His authority to the real church.

So Jesus has told us what to do and He has given us the authority to do it.  Then He gives the power of prayer to His church.  Again He is talking to the believers that if any two of you agree on what to ask for, it will be given.  Where 2 or 3 gather in His name, Jesus will be there also.  You see, we live in a community of believers.  Don’t get me wrong because we are always to be trying to have outsiders begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.  But as believers we have to know the power we have.  Whenever we are gathered in 2’s or 3’s or like this, Jesus is here also.  2 or 3 people can make up the church.  This is a comforting thought because it means that the church isn’t confined to this building.  Church is whenever we have a Bible study, fellowship of some sort away from the church or anytime we are gathered.

The church is our tie to Jesus in heaven.  It is our connection to God.  We have a responsibility to keep it pure as we have been given steps to deal with conflict.  If we don’t take care of conflict, the local church will die.  We, the church, have been empowered to do all things on earth.  Sometimes these things are the hard things to do and we may not want to do them but they have to be done to keep the church pure.  Then, of course, we are also the source of prayers and prayer life.

I think that we should begin this new year of ministries in our churches by forming prayer groups.  We can also have new fellowship groups like movie nights and diner’s club.  We can have book clubs, Bible studies for different groups.  The list is really endless.  But we need to get it all started and we do this with prayer.  Last week we talked about how there is no one here who is too busy for prayer.  I would like some volunteers for some of these and hopefully we will need more than one group.  You can make up your own group if you want.  Let’s start this year out right.

These verses are pretty straight forward.  Personally, I think that we have a room full of all-star Christians.  I think we have welcomed other all-stars into our midst who have helped us tremendously in our striving to love Jesus.  I think that we have the chemistry to make a great church where Jesus Christ is first and foremost in all we do.  We can either be like the team with all the greatest players in the world who couldn’t get along and lost out or we can be together and do the work of Jesus Christ.  Either we are for Him or we are against Him.  There is no middle ground.

Jesus gives us all these things because He loves us and wants us to grow His kingdom.  Jesus Christ has promised to be with us and help us.  All we have to be is obedient to Him.  His love for you is beyond our scope of understanding.  It is bigger than all the universe and it is for you.  Thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.